Driving valuable innovation: this is how technology can empower us

Values as a compass in innovation

The Values Compass to digitisation in education and research provides a common language to discuss these developments and their impact on public values. By thinking and deciding from values such as humanity, justice and autonomy, professionals can consciously steer towards value(n)full innovation. The Values Compass supports design choices, procurement, use and governance of digital resources. So that digitalisation contributes, for example, to equal opportunities, meaningful contact, freedom of choice, privacy and inclusion.

A sector-wide tool

The Values Compass is a sector-wide instrument that gives direction to digitisation based on public values. SURF and Kennisnet developed the Values Compass together with a broad coalition of parties, including experts from the Rathenau Institute, MBO Digitaal, GÉANT, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. It also contains valuable contributions from educational institutions, sector councils and the Ethics Advisory Council of the PO Council and Kennisnet.

The Values Compass shows which values can come under pressure, which dilemmas arise in the process and how professionals can have meaningful conversations about this, from classroom to boardroom. So that decisions around digitisation in education and research can be taken in a well-considered way and are in line with the public values and ethical principles we as a sector consider important.

Updated Values Compass: with an even clearer values overview and expanded with practical examples

This version of the Values Compass (December 2025) is an update of the 2021 edition. With the help of administrators, school leaders, experts and feedback from the sector, it has been improved:

• The overview has been simplified with values to make it more accessible, recognisable and applicable.
• The context and examples have been updated, with explicit attention to the impact of AI, big tech and geopolitical dependencies.
• The tool has been expanded with more handouts and real-life situations showing how values guide choices in practice.
• The scope has been broadened: the Values Compass is now intended for both education and research, fitting the full target group of Kennisnet and SURF.

The updated Values Compass remains a practical and easily applicable tool that helps schools and institutions stay in control in an increasingly complex digital reality, by assessing technology for what it adds and for what it affects. In this way, the Values Compass helps educational and research institutions stay in control, so that it is not digitisation that determines what we as a sector consider important, but ourselves.

Download the Values Compass